<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Undeserved Revival by desnoodle</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22627471">Undeserved Revival</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/desnoodle/pseuds/desnoodle'>desnoodle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternia, Asshole Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider, Canonical Character Death, Canonical Child Abuse, Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider Redemption, Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider's Bad Parenting, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gen, God Tier (Homestuck), M/M, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Pre-Sburb/Sgrub, References to Drugs, Retcon Powers, SBURB (Homestuck), SGRUB (Homestuck)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:15:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,388</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22627471</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/desnoodle/pseuds/desnoodle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>TL;DR: Bro is revived and ends up raising Karkat as he tries to not fuck it up and kill the kid</p>
<p>Bro Strider, the older brother of Dave Strider also his abuser. He ends up dying after being impaled by his own katana, except instead of just dying..something else happens instead. Something no one was expecting, he wakes up in a place he doesn't know before  somehow arriving on the alien planet Alternia.</p>
<p>Being resurrected in a way, an unwanted revival he never asked for Bro tries to survive on the planet filled with lusii and trolls. He then meets someone and something else along the way, a crab lusus and a troll. Or specifically Crabdad and Karkat, saving Karkat from peril one time he stays with the grub and slowly gets attached</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave Strider &amp; Karkat Vantas, Dave's Bro | Beta Dirk Strider &amp; Karkat Vantas, Eridan Ampora &amp; Sollux Captor, Jake English/Dirk Strider, Karkat Vantas &amp; Karkat's Lusus, Nepeta Leijon &amp; Equius Zahhak, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Terezi Pyrope &amp; Vriska Serket</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>47</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. ==> Wake Up.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you enjoy this chapter, chapter two is now already out! ^^</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Wake Up.</b> </span>
</p><p>Opening your eyes, the first thing you saw was nothing but black. It made you think your eyes weren't even open, but they were and you knew that because you just blinked 5 times.</p><p>You went to sit up slowly only to pause. This felt..wrong in a way. It didn't make sense to you because you were certain..certain that..</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Try to remember.</b> </span>
</p><p>You were certain that something happened to you. Something you can't seem to remember. </p><p>It hadn't been until your gaze traveled to the front of your polo that the memory finally clicked in your head. Like the missing piece of a puzzle found, and then you had the full picture. The puzzle fully solved.</p><p>Except this solved puzzle was the fact that you <em> died. </em></p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; On second thought. Don't think about it.</b> </span>
</p><p>Wanting to not dwell on the thought of your death, you fully sat up and rose to your feet. Taking a look around to try and figure out where you were, your brows furrowed in confusion.</p><p>The area you were in was..nothing but an endless expanse of darkness. Pitch black. What could be described as a void.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Take a closer look.</b> </span>
</p><p>Seeing something white in the distance, you stopped your musing as you stared at it in confusion.</p><p>Considering everything else was pitch black you wanted to see what it was- no. You needed to see what it was.</p><p>Wasting no time, you began to walk towards it. Your walk slowly broke into a sprint before you were eventually running.</p><p>You could tell you were getting closer from the way the spec of white eventually got bigger and bigger..and bigger and bigger. Until you eventually ran straight into it.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Shit! Brace yourself!</b> </span>
</p><p>Blinding light filled your vision as you then shut your eyes closed, you had your arms raised above your eyes to try and block out the light-</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; What?</b> </span>
</p><p>Opening your eyes which were previously shut, they immediately widened as you sat up and looked at the vast area around you.</p><p>You were on top of a hill, it was dusk, probably around midnight from what you could tell. With a look around you noticed the trees and bushes and things alike were...different. Looking at the sky again you noticed..two moons?!</p><p>There were two fucking moons in the sky and they were both different colors?!</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Finally. Introduce yourself.</b> </span>
</p><p>YOUR NAME is BRO STRIDER. A man who was previously known as DECEASED until today,  February 9th. You were LOCATED on what you would call a ALIEN PLANET but to be honest YOU felt like you just took A BUNCH OF DRUGS instead.<br/>
<span class="u"><br/>
<b>==&gt; Bro: Explore.</b> <b><br/>
</b> </span><br/>
Rising from your spot on the grassy hill slowly after stretching your legs, you quickly realize you are missing two very important items. First off, your hat wasn’t on your head and was missing and second, your shades weren’t on and were nowhere to be found.<br/>
<br/>
You tried to not be bothered by the fact that you clearly weren’t on Earth, or the fact that both your shades and hat were gone and missing, and instead decided to just walk down the hill then head to the forest. Sighing softly you went to take out your katana from your strife deck only to pause.<br/>
<br/>
Okay..weird. You were sure that you had your katana equipped in bladekind, same with all your other kinds you had. Switching it, you then tried again but this time you tried to retrieve Lil’ Cal from puppetkind.<br/>
Nothing had ejected from the deck and appeared in your hand. Nothing. Not one thing.<br/>
<br/>
This wasn’t right. Something was wrong. It had been bad enough waking up without your shades, or hat for that matter. But to know that Cal, your best friend wasn’t in your sylladex or strife deck? That was just horrible. <em>Catastrophic</em>. <em> Disastrous. </em> <em><br/>
</em> <span class="u"> <em><br/>
</em> <b>==&gt; Bro: Be Reader</b> </span></p><p><em> You </em> are now the reader.<br/>
<br/>
At the moment Bro was pacing back and forth on the ground, practically walking in circles as he ran a gloved hand over his freakishly pale face. Suppressing the urge to groan Bro would stop his nervous and distressed pacing to instead inhale quickly through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth.<br/>
<br/>
Lowering his left hand back to his side, he stood there, his gaze staying on the blue greenish grass below him while he calmed down to some extent. It would take him a good 5 minutes before he finally lifted his head up and started to walk in the direction of the forest again.<br/>
<br/>
Bro’s face was unreadable and expressionless the whole time he walked to the forest, all emotion was gone as he stopped thinking about the situation he was in.</p><p><span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Reader: Switch back to Bro.</b> </span> <b><br/>
</b></p><p>You had reached the forest, your gaze on the light pale blue tree trunks and its pink leaves. Seriously, you still felt like you were on drugs but you knew you weren’t.<br/>
<br/>
Wherever you were was the real deal, drugs or no drugs. This place definitely wasn’t Earth.<br/>
<br/>
‘ <em> Going into a forest on a place that might as well be an alien planet, unarmed. God, this has to be the best idea I’ve had in awhile…’  </em><br/>
<br/>
You thought as you sighed softly. Without a second to try and convince yourself out of it you put one foot in front of the other as you started to walk into the forest. Disappearing past the first line of pink and blue trees and the bushes, you would venture deeper into the forest.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Bro: Switch to the reader for a better view.</b> </span>
</p><p>As Bro would venture deeper into the ginormous forest, noises would start to be more noticeable. The noises Bro would hear caused him to pause in his walking, it.. It sounded like an animal of sorts as if it was enraged..<br/>
<br/>
Bro would merely click his tongue as he heard the animal only get louder. Immediately he’d squat down by the tree he was by, pressing his back against it he strained his hearing to pick up the animal’s footsteps. From what he could faintly hear along with the footsteps and the growling or barking, the animal seemed to have been going away and heading in a different direction.<br/>
<br/>
Slowly rising from his squatting position, he stayed against the tree before he looked up and reached out to the nearest branch he could grab a hold of. Fingers curling around the pale blue bark of the branch, he’d grab it with his other hand as well before going to pull down on it. </p><p>The branch would snap off of the tree loudly. Once it was detached from the tree Bro looked at the tree branch in his hands, he could turn it into a spear if he found something sharp that he could use to carve the tip of the branch into a sharp point.<br/>
<br/>
As if forgetting the loud snap the branch had caused, Bro would turn his gaze away from the branch when he heard what sounded like growling somewhere around him. His gaze would quickly focus on what looked like a bigger version of a dog..a wolf maybe but it was also different from what he had seen on the internet of a wolf.<br/>
<br/>
The wolf had a coat of pure white fur and though it had eyes, it seemed to lack pupils. The wolf would only growl again as it took a few more steps closer to him, and Bro in any other situation would’ve been more than fine to fight a wolf. But all he had was a stick in his hand, and unless he found the right time to jab it into the wolf, he was going to try and stay away from the animal as well as he could.<br/>
<br/>
Which is why he instinctively took a few steps back, raising his tree branch in response to the growling wolf as he watched it open its mouth and bare its fangs at him.<br/>
<br/>
Something told him this was going to end very, very <em>badly</em>.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. ==>Reader: Continue to see what's going on.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This was all because he was revived, if he stayed dead he wouldn’t be in this situation at all, he’d still be dead on that godforsaken planet and would still be impaled by his own katana. But no, he was alive, living and breathing and he fucking loathed it</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've had this chapter written for a few good hours now, but have only managed to now just post it because school blocked ao3 on the computer and I had stuff to do right after. </p><p>But enough about my life and more about the fanfic, as of writing this and posting the chapter I've already begun chapter 3. Depending on how it goes ill probably have the next chapter be around the range 3000-4000 words, also we will get to Karkat soon don't worry I know this all been kinda boring dealing with Bro's bullshit. Just be patient and deal with it for now lmao</p><p>(hope you enjoy this chapter ^^)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Reader: Continue to see what's going on.</b> </span>
</p><p>Bro at the moment was trying to not- well die obviously. But the wolf was making that much harder and- oh shit!- Bro would quickly dodge as the wolf lunged at him, narrowly missing the snapping jaws that would've taken a bite out of his arm. Panting lightly, he gripped on the stick he was holding in his fist as he got out of the dodge roll he was in. Without a second thought, knowing fully well he was in a life or death situation at the moment, Bro would charge at the wolf, clearly catching the animal off guard as he tackled the white beast.</p><p>His free hand was clamping down on the muzzle of the wolf as he held its mouth shut, the sounds of the wolf growling louder in his ear than before. The wolf would struggle under him; thrashing wildly from under him as it kicked his legs forcefully into his chest trying to desperately escape from under him.</p><p>Bro the whole time -trying to ignore the way his chest was hurting and was probably getting bruised- would keep his grip on the wolf's mouth, not letting it open because he knew if he did then his shoulder or arm would get bitten, or worse his head would be gone.</p><p>He didn't want to experience any of those scenarios that were happening in his head, so he'd instead do what he would need to survive.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Reader: Switch back to Bro.</b> </span>
</p><p><em> You </em> so effortlessly switch back to being Bro. Now being Bro again, you keep the wolf down even if it continues to wildly thrash under you.</p><p>Still ignoring the way it dug into your flesh -the fabric of your shirt barely protecting the skin under it- your grip would tighten on the tree branch you held. Pulling your right arm back as far as it could go without risking the wolf's escape -it wasn't much- you would then quickly jab the branch into the wolf as hard as you could.</p><p>Watching the way the wolf's eyes-even without pupils- widen as the branch pierced its flesh made you slowly let go of its jaw and get off the animal as you quickly scooted away.</p><p>Sitting, leaning on your hands as you put them back a bit you would just watch as the wolf took its last breaths. <em> Trying </em> to get air into its lungs as it laid on its side, the white coat of fur that was so effortlessly clean was ruined with the blood that was <em> soaking </em> it. The pure horror of what you just did <em> finally </em> started to sink in as you watched the animal die, how it's eyes started to close and eyelids droop before its head hit the ground softly. It was as if it was simply sleeping but <em> you </em> knew it wasn't just <em> sleeping. You knew that for a fact </em>, because you literally just impaled it.</p><p>You just <em> sat there </em> and watched as the blood flowed out like a sea of water, how it was as if there was <em> no end </em> to it. You just killed a creature, an animal that did nothing wrong <em> simply </em> for your own <em> selfish desire to live </em>.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt; Stop being the selfish asshole and instead be the Reader.</b> </span>
</p><p>Not being the selfish asshole anymore, and instead being the Reader again.</p><p>Bro would continue to sit there, staring at the now dead and deceased wolf in front of him. He didn’t know how much time would pass until he finally got up and walked to the body of fur and blood, with a grim expression he squatted down by the body before grabbing the branch as he yanked it out of the body.</p><p>Not minding how the blood would spray on to his shirt from the sudden movement that was caused by him yanking the branch out of the impaled corpse, he would look at the corpse one last time before stepping over it carefully. Bro decided that now would be a good time to find some sort of pond or river, anything with water so he could get a look at himself and clean the now bloodied branch.</p><p>As he left the small clearing with the dead white wolf, walking past more bushes and trees as he trekked even deeper into the forest. The one thing Bro would never know was that he had just killed a young grub's lusus, a lusus that was doing nothing but protecting a grub that was now defenseless against the cruel world that was Alternia.<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>He hadn't known how much time had passed since he had killed the wolf, Bro had been wandering through the forest for what had felt like hours and the constant reminder of the blood that was not only drying on his shirt but was also drying on his face, was certainly not helping his situation. His situation being that he was at the moment <em> completely </em> lost in the forest, like a kid at a carnival, fully separated from his hypothetical parents that weren't important to this metaphor considering he was an adult and could fully take care of himself.</p><p>God damn he was hating this more and more by each passing second, managing to suppress the urge to pick at the dried blood on his face Bro continued to wander around in the forest before pausing when he heard something.</p><p>It was rushing, whatever he was hearing was moving quickly and rapidly at first he thought he was simply hearing another animal coming to rush at him, something he’d have to kill again just for survival.  But the more he heard it the more he started to think that it wasn’t the sound of stampeding footsteps at all, it was more rapid..as if it wasn’t supposed to be loud unless it was moving quickly through a current. That’s when the thought clicked in his head. What he was hearing wasn’t an animal or footsteps of any kind. No it was <em> water </em> and that meant he could clean his face and free it from the captivity of dried animal blood.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Stop being the Reader and instead be the asshole with blood on his face.</b> </span>
</p><p>Now back to being Bro. </p><p>You would follow the sound of the rushing water, hearing it only get louder as you walked in the right direction you couldn't help the way the corner of your mouth pulled up into a small smirk. Knowing you could clean your face and get the godawful dry blood off of you was good to know, hell maybe you could try and clean your shirt in the process.</p><p>Going past probably the 50th bush you've seen since entering the forest, you spotted the giant waterfall that was in the distance, the rushing water now being the only thing you could hear as you turned your gaze to the current a few feet in front of you.</p><p>Flashstepping over to it, you'd disappear into thin air before reappearing right next to the body of water that was getting pushed by the current. With a small eyebrow raise of curiosity you squatted down and moved to stick your hand into the water.  Your fingers touched the <em>cold</em> <em>liquid</em> barely making contact with it before you stuck your whole gloved hand under the water. Through the water, the transparent liquid made your already pale hand look almost <em>white</em>, and that's when you <em>noticed</em> something oddly <em>strange.</em></p><p><em> Something you hadn't seen until now. </em> </p><p>Your reflection was looking back at you, casting off the water's reflection as it <em> stared </em> back at you. Your lips parted as your previous expression was taken over by one of nothing but shock. Your eyes were...gone- well no. You. You had eyes. Yes that's true, but..you had no pupils- and then you remembered the wolf.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Bro: Remember your first thought about the wolf.</b> </span>
</p><p><em> The wolf had a coat of pure white fur and though it had eyes, it seemed to lack pupils </em> <em> . </em></p><p>That last part played in your head over and over again. On repeat. On loop.  You had no pupils just like the wolf, the wolf you killed probably a few hours ago somewhere in the forest you just escaped. </p><p>
  <em> Were you even alive anymore? </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Were you in heaven? Hell? Purgatory..? </em>
</p><p>You didn't have the answer to that and that unsettled you, staring at your blank reflection..how your eyes held and showed no emotion. Pupils non existent, your skin a deathly pale, a borderline white. </p><p>You looked dead, yet you were still <em> breathing </em> you knew that because at the moment while having this <em> mental breakdown </em> you've been inhaling and exhaling way too quickly, hyperventilating as you tried to not freak out. </p><p>Tried to get air into your lungs for proof. <em> But proof of what? Proof that you weren't some fucked up dead zombie that's been in purgatory?! </em></p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Bro: Switch back to the Reader before you end up freaking out even more.</b> </span>
</p><p>Bro would do just that, tearing his gaze away from his reflection in the water and squeezing his eyes shut tight.  He just fell on to his ass, getting out of the squatting position he propped his elbows up on his knees, head resting in his hand while he absentmindedly tugged at his hair gently.</p><p>Bro would try to regulate his breathing, focusing more on counting down numbers and inhaling and exhaling rather than focusing on that distant thought of him still being dead. It would work after a while, the rushing water helping to block out everything till it was nothing but a staticky sound filling his ears. Eventually pulling his hands away from his <em> abused </em> hair, distantly feeling the way his head and scalp would throb from how hard he had been pulling near the end of his breakdown.</p><p>Bro felt <em> numb </em>, he hadn't cried at all or showed any emotion, other than the shock he first experienced when seeing his face since first looking into the water’s reflection. He didn't know what to do now so he just stayed where he was sitting, his eyes still shut closed while he listened to the rushing water. He didn’t give a shit about the blood on his face anymore, he’d just pick it off with his nails or something else.</p><p>It would be another 20 minutes before he finally moved his body from its position, his body ached and his bones would protest as he slowly stood up. Truth be told, the only reason he was getting up was because his stomach was gnawing on his insides, all because he hadn't eaten food since...since he died he guessed.  A sigh leaving his parted lips, Bro would stretch his arms hearing his joints crack and pop in response to the mild stretch. After that he’d flashstep to the other side of the stream of rushing water, spotting a few bushes Bro would walk over to them wondering if he was able to find any food, maybe berries or something.</p><p>Living in Texas meant he didn’t deal with wilderness or survival, getting food from the gas station or somewhere nearby was always what he usually did after two weeks or so when the apartment ran out of food or Dave finally ran out of his stash in the kid’s closet. So, now actually out in the wild with the animals and no other sign of civilization  Bro was kind of frustrated that he never actually cared or watched those survival shows.</p><p>Giving up on trying to find berries in the bushes that clearly had none, Bro turned his head to look at the waterfall, if there was water then surely there was fish in the stream. That was the best idea he had for food, other than maybe walking back to the probably now rotting corpse of the wolf he killed hours ago. His face would contort into one of disgust as he imagined eating rotting flesh with flies flying around the decomposing corpse and- stop that train of thought and imagery now before he’d throw up his insides.</p><p>Now trying to not let the nausea get to him and affect him in any way, shape or form Bro would  take a moment of just standing there and holding his head in his hands as he tried to push that mental image out of his head. He felt his body want to gag as he continued to fail about not thinking about it, but he forced his body to resist the urge of gagging, lifting his head up he tried to walk farther upstream only stumbling a bit at first before he found his balance.</p><p>No way was he going to lose to some god awful image in his head that made him want to throw up. He was a Strider damnit and Striders were strong motherfuckers that showed no emotion and didn’t get nauseous over shit.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Stop being the Reader and go back to being Bro as he reaches further upstream near the waterfall.</b> </span>
</p><p>You are now back to being Bro right around the time he successfully manages to reach the area of the river near the waterfall, from here you were able to see how big the waterfall was and <em> holy shit it was fucking massive.  </em> You had to crane your head up, tilting it back all the way just to barely see the top of that thing because it was <em> ginormous </em>. </p><p>After staring at the massive waterfall you would tear gaze away from it to look at the river, squinting your eyes you were barely able to make out the outline of a fish that was swimming through the stream. Haha, guess who just fuckin found lunch? This guy did damnit.<br/>
<br/>
Ejecting the bloody tree branch from your sylladex-from where you had stored it in there earlier in the process of your long walking because carrying that shit everywhere was annoying- you held it in your hands, getting a good grip on it before going to step into the current of cold water. As soon as your shoes made contact with the water you knew you just did the stupidest thing ever, but you were already half way through the motion of your second foot stepping into the water that you only realized what you just did a little too late.<br/>
<br/>
Now standing in the river with wet shoes and cold feet you suppressed the urge to groan and instead went to focus on the fish you knew was somewhere in the water and- shit. Did- Did you scare it away from stepping into the fucking water?<br/>
<br/>
Did you <em> seriously </em> just scare the only source of food you had? <em> God fucking damnit </em> you totally did just do that. This time not suppressing the groan that escaped your mouth and carried nothing but pure frustration and anger that was aimed at yourself, you began to wade through the water a few curse words leaving your mouth as you felt your shoes soak up more of the water and get heavier. At this point it was probably a better idea to just take the goddamn things off and those them into your sylladex for now, which is what you now set out to do.<br/>
<br/>
Tossing your tree branch on to the gravely rocky dry land, you then lifted your right foot and bent your left knee as you rested the right shoe on your thigh, trying to balance yourself perfectly so you could untie the the shoelaces and take the wet damp thing off your foot. Almost tipping over, you started to hop on your foot to try and stabilize yourself again, except it didn’t work and next thing you knew you fell into the river.<br/>
<br/>
Your body collided with the water surrounding you and it wouldn’t take long until all of your body was submerged under the water, quickly sitting up your eyes were wide as you gasped for air for a second before looking at your body and soaked clothes. Your shirt uncomfortably hugged your body, your pale skin barely visible because of the white fabric of your polo shirt, your pants also hugged your body and stuck to it. It was all very uncomfortable and you didn’t like the feeling of it, but you had no other clothes..so unless you went around naked- which wasn’t going to happen, you guess you just had to stay with the wet, damp and uncomfortable clothes.</p><p>
  <span class="u"> <b>==&gt;Be the Reader to try and help figure out how to possibly fix this.</b> </span>
</p><p>Yeah. Yup. </p><p>Bro was already doing that, he was crawling out of the river and on to the bank of gravel and rocks where his tree branch was laying there on the ground. Getting out of the river he would flop down beside the branch, shifting his arm so he could rest his head on top of it as he inhaled and exhaled slowly. He didn’t even know how the fuck he had fell in the first place, first he was getting his shoe off his foot and the next thing he knew he had fallen into the <em> cold </em> water. </p><p>The elder Strider wasn’t even gonna bother to take off his shoes at this point because his <em> whole </em> outfit was soaking wet, from head to toe he was wet, his hair was messed up because of it getting wet. That was what probably upset him the most, and the fact that he scared away his lunch..which as he thought about it he started to get hungry again, his stomach making a growling sound as it practically <em> begged </em>for food and something to consume. </p><p>Nothing was going his way since he woke up here, he’s lost his hat and shades, killed an innocent animal for survival, starved, found out he apparently has no pupils, lost the only goddamn food he’d find here and has now fallen into the goddamn river. This was all because he was revived, if he stayed dead he wouldn’t be in this situation at all, he’d still be dead on that godforsaken planet and would still be impaled by his own katana. But no, he was alive, living and breathing and he fucking <em> loathed it </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. ==>Reader: Continue to see what Bro is doing.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>You...you felt like you just grew closer to this creature and you had a feeling that it felt the same way as you both shared this moment in complete silence.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>god- i'm so sorry. i'm so sorry it took this long for me to get this chapter out- with everything that's happened writing has been a bit hard but I've finally gotten around to wrapping this chapter up and uploading this chapter so..i hope 5,012 words can satisfy you for this long wait- I hope it was worth it and not a waste of you're time ^^""</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Reader: Continue to see what Bro is doing.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bro was still laying uncomfortably on the bank of rocks, his head resting on his arms while he shifted in his spot when he felt the rocks press up against his skin in awkward positions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Relaxing again eventually, he felt his eyes slowly slide shut as he started to get tired. For the past few hours he has been doing nothing but walking and was now just </span>
  <em>
    <span>exhausted</span>
  </em>
  <span>, </span>
  <em>
    <span>worn out, </span>
  </em>
  <span>he could tell the urge to sleep was starting to take control of him, how his breathing slowed down and how his eyes started to get heavy. He accepted his fate of falling asleep, letting the darkness take control while he slept for a few hours</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Bro: After a few hours have passed, but not many. Wake up.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You wake up after an hour or two of sleeping to be met with the feeling of something warm and something </span>
  <em>
    <span>hot</span>
  </em>
  <span> touching your skin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Opening your eyes and lifting your head up you looked around and realized it wasn't pitch black anymore and you could fully see your surroundings. You tilted your head up to look at the sky and immediately upon looking </span>
  <em>
    <span>directly </span>
  </em>
  <span>into the star that was the </span>
  <em>
    <span>sun</span>
  </em>
  <span> you realized your mistake. </span>
  <span>Your eyes would squeeze shut upon looking at it and </span>
  <em>
    <span>shit!</span>
  </em>
  <span> This hurt more than it usually did back in Texas even without shades. The feeling of something burning reminded you to sit up and get up as the simple burning sensation started to cause actual pain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck- fuck. Ow!!</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yeah okay the sun hurt- the light hurt. Your unprotected pale skin felt as if it was on fire as your body finally responded to the mental plea of getting out of the sun's rays and into some shade. Literally diving for the trees, you landed on the ground with a thud but you didn't care if it hurt because you were in the shade. Safe and sound. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not burning to a crisp in the sunlight anymore,  you sat against the tree in the shade now just looking over your arms. Your skin was irritated; it hurt to touch and you were already regretting the idea of sleeping outside again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With the sun out, it was obvious you weren't going to be out there for a while, unless you made it to a fully shady area where you wouldn't die of a </span>
  <em>
    <span>major</span>
  </em>
  <span> heat stroke. But finding an area that’s fully shaded seemed like a goddamn unlikely thing, the chance of even finding the area, let alone get to it was near impossible.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>So for now you were going to stay under the tree out of the sun, away from the rays of death and wait for nighttime so your skin could stop burning and throbbing.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Stop being Bro and instead be someone entirely new. </b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You’re now the Reader</span>
</p>
<p>
  <b></b>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;No don’t be the reader, be the alien for fuck’s sake</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The alien? What do you mean- Oh right. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>You mean the </span>
  <em>
    <span>troll</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Yes you are now being the troll or rather the grub that just got out of their cocoon and into their newly hatched humanoid body.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Getting off the ground shakily from where you had fallen moments ago out of your cocoon, you pushed yourself up and stood up, your new body not having really found its sense of balance as it swayed back and forth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With some struggle and a lot of waddling you managed to reach the nearest rock and lean against it for support. Finally being able to look around, you lifted your head up and looked at the dark rocky ceiling, turning to look around you, you’d spot a few other things laying on the floor and some hanging off of a strand from a rock. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Realizing the things that were dangling looked a lot like the thing you got out of moments ago you blinked in surprise before focusing on some bug like thing with horns that looked..well..</span>
  <em>
    <span>squashed. </span>
  </em>
  <span>You weren’t lying at all, the thing or animal looked squashed. As if it got stepped on by some force that made it barely recognizable, the horns it had looked fully cracked and broken- and that was when you heard the </span>
  <em>
    <span>vrrr</span>
  </em>
  <span> like sound. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Your body stiffening up, you slowly turned your head around to make eye contact with a hunk of metal. Its red eyes looked as if they glowed as it moved closer to you, your first instinct when it approached you was to raise your arms in a defensive stance, your eyes already shutting closed as you awaited the blow you’d be dealt.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>But the hit never came. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was what had caused you to slowly lower your arms and open your eyes until you stopped squinting, allowing your vision to focus on the drone in front of you to realize that all it was doing was pointing in the direction in front of you.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>You’d look at the metal hand before slowly turning your head to look at what it was pointing at..only to see a deeper part of the cave you were in. Did- did it want you to go in? It seemed it did but why?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You would’ve thought more about it but when you suddenly got </span>
  <em>
    <span>roughly</span>
  </em>
  <span> pushed forward- causing you to stumble as you struggled to regain your balance and not trip over your own two new feet. You knew that you weren’t gonna be able to voice an opinion on it at all..it seems you </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> to go deeper in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so you did. You did as the drone wanted and walked deeper into the cave as it</span>
  <strike>
    <span> requested </span>
  </strike>
  <em>
    <span>demanded.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Follow the troll deeper into the cave.</b>
  </span>
  <b>
    <br/>
  </b>
  <b>
    <br/>
  </b>
  <span>The troll was walking deeper into the cave, the cave was eerily silent other than the occasional </span>
  <em>
    <span>drip drop</span>
  </em>
  <span> of water hitting the rocky ground he walked on.  Other than the water, he’d rarely hear the sound of growling, clicking or various other sounds he couldn’t name.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While walking, in the depths of the cave a distant glow of a red orb would appear in his field of vision in front of him. The light caused Karkat to slowly stop walking, he stared at the distant bright light with a mix of curiosity and concern but just like that in less than 5 seconds- that curiosity was replaced with fear. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Suddenly the bright red distant orb would </span>
  <em>
    <span>shoot</span>
  </em>
  <span> out a long stream of red- Karkat scrambling to dodge the sudden stream of light that came at him, he would fall to the ground tripping over his own two new feet. The stream of red or rather the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking laser </span>
  </em>
  <span>had narrowly missed Karkat, the laser leaving a black burned spot on the ground where Karkat had stood moments ago. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karkat now standing on shaking legs, his eyes wide as he stared at the red glowing dot that only got bigger as it got closer and </span>
  <em>
    <span>closer</span>
  </em>
  <span> to him. Eventually the dot would grow into a full grey metallic body as Karkat stared at the tall drone that was looming over him. His state of fear would only rise, despite wanting to flee and run, his feet were </span>
  <em>
    <span>planted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to the ground and his body showed no actual signs of moving. Being immobilized by his fear as he stared at the drone that was firing up another shot of the glowing red beam Karkat would try and open his mouth to form words he didn’t know. He didn’t know how to speak, he didn't know anything.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>All he knew was that he crawled out of a cocoon and was now being put into something and was staring at a big thing that was definitely going to kill him. He just got here in the world and was going to die.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;No! Karkat: Run.</b>
  </span>
  <b>
    <br/>
  </b>
  <b>
    <br/>
  </b>
  <span>You.. you didn't know what took over you at that moment. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whether it was instincts or the want to survive, one moment you were standing there about to accept death- the next you were running past the drone that just fired another lazer where you stood. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The only thing you could hear as you ran away was the sound of your heartbeat. It would only get louder the faster you ran and the quicker you got away. You had no sense of direction as you ran in the cave, you were lost even with your night vision which allowed you to see in the darkness. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <b>
    <span class="u">==&gt;Reader: Skip ahead a bit but not a lot.</span>
    <br/>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You skip ahead a bit but not by a lot to be greeted with a Karkat that was sitting down, leaning heavily against a rock. He was busy trying to catch his breath- he looked more worn out than before, small cuts and bruises would litter his light gray skinned body as if he had been attacked moments ago and was now recovering from it. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Despite all this, the fear that Karkat had felt before was still in his eyes but was now mixed in with a look of determination. The distant sounds of animal-like noises were louder than what they were before. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karkat after catching his breath fully would stand up, using the rock as support as he pushed himself up. He’d take a look around, picking up a few stones on the ground before he’d start to walk in the direction of the animal sounds he heard. He didn’t know why but the sounds soothed him- hearing the sounds caused him to relax in a way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While walking deeper through the cave in the direction of the animal noises, the sound of very </span>
  <em>
    <span>very loud</span>
  </em>
  <span> footsteps could be heard from the direction Karkat was walking. The footsteps were so big and loud the ground practically shook a bit under the weight, the noise bouncing off the walls of the cave.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Karkat would only take in a sharp quick breath as the thing that was making all the noise came into his line of sight and view. A </span>
  <em>
    <span>giant</span>
  </em>
  <span> robot towered over him, its frame bigger than the one he had seen before previously. His feet were frozen in place again, even after surviving those last few challenges that had him absolutely worn out and beat up, having something tower over him and create this much noise was absolutely </span>
  <em>
    <span>frightening</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His heartbeat was the only thing he could hear in his ears as he stared wide eyed at the drone, how his body froze up even more when the drone wrapped its massive fist around his grey body, and just like that.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>It happened way too fast. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before Karkat could even register what happened, everything around him suddenly went </span>
  <em>
    <span>black</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Reader: See what happened.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The drone that had loomed over Karkat, moved and grabbed him, wrapping its giant metallic hand around his small frame. Lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing, it now held him in the air and all too quickly Karkat went from being in the drone’s hand to being now up against the cavern’s wall.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The drone threw Karkat, his small frame left the giant hand and flew into the air before it collided with the cavern’s wall. Karkat’s eyes widened and went he hit the wall, his head felt like it was pounding, his vision swimming and then when he fell and hit the ground with a thud, his eyes closed and stayed shut.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Karkat was knocked out upon impact, he was going to be knocked out for quite a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The drone would only look at Karkat’s now even more bloodied body and then turned to walk away, as far as the drone knew from its coding, Karkat had just failed </span>
  <em>
    <span>The Trials</span>
  </em>
  <span> and was now just another dead troll added to the pile of dead grubs and young trolls alike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Reader: Switch back over to Bro</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You had been waiting for what felt like hours- and probably was- for the goddamn star that was the sun to go the fuck away and for it to be nighttime. Now that the sun was gone and all that was left was the night sky and the two bright moons, you were finally able to venture out into the night and make some progress.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>To be honest, you didn’t really know where you were going, you had no goal in mind other than locating food and finding a shelter. But past that, you had nothing, what were you even supposed to do in </span>
  <em>
    <span>purgatory?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Think about your past actions and bitch about it to no one as you go insane? Definitely not.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pushing yourself off the ground, you gave your limbs a small but needed stretch, after sitting under the tree and not moving for quite sometime..your legs fell asleep for longer than you’d like to admit and that lingering feeling of tingling was finally starting to decrease and leave now that you were moving again.  </span>
  <span>Walking away from the tree you had been by, you made your way through the plains, it was as if time stopped and slowed down when you started to travel again the only reason you knew this was because, at one moment you were walking through the plains with nothing in sight and the next thing you knew. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You were hiding behind a tree after you spotted a shelter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The reason why you hid was because you heard voices, but what was weird about that was the fact that the language in which the..</span>
  <em>
    <span>people</span>
  </em>
  <span> spoke wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>english. </span>
  </em>
  <span>It was some weird foreign language you hadn’t heard at all not once in your life, it was almost alien-like as stupid as that sounded, like it came out of an anime or a movie, it didn’t sound real but it didn’t sound fake either.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Bro: Switch to the Reader.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bro had his back pressed against a tree, the bark rubbing against the back of his polo while his hands were placed around the tree, gripping into the bark that he managed to chip away a bit as he stood there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The male wasn’t scared, no not really, after he had managed to take down that ravage wolf he knew he could survive, but the reason he was hesitating in charging straight in going all guns blazing’ was because if there were people </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If there were people here in </span>
  <em>
    <span>purgatory</span>
  </em>
  <span> then they weren’t weak or weren’t defenseless. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Biting the inside of his lip, Bro slowed his breathing, inhaling for three seconds and then exhaling for four, he repeated the process until his grip on the tree had relaxed and became lax.  </span>
  <span>He certainly wasn’t gonna charge in there- no that would be a foolish and idiotic move, Striders weren’t idiotic so, like any sensible person who didn’t lack braincells, he’d devise a plan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Without his katana he was defenseless but he has recently learned that he can do some serious damage with a stick if he gave it enough force, taking a moment to stop his musing Bro then glanced down at the ground below him. He stared at the patch of grass that blew in the wind before he focused on the pebbles and the few stones that were under him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Perfect.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sure, he didn’t have any branches to stab people with that wouldn’t make noise, and sure maybe..stones and pebbles weren’t the </span>
  <em>
    <span>best</span>
  </em>
  <span> option..but when it came to survival and a shelter with possible food and weapons. He was willing to bet his chances that yes- he could </span>
  <em>
    <span>totally</span>
  </em>
  <span> knock someone out with a pebble.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Squatting down as silently as he could, he reached out and picked up a few of the stones and pebbles, putting a few of them into his pockets while he held on to the rest. Now that he had a weapon, he needed to get closer to the people, who were probably inside the shelter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Poking his head out a bit from behind the tree, he stared at the shelter, his gaze going to the front entrance before it drifted to the two windows on the side, the windows from what he could see from here were a bit dusty. Well- no actually the whole house looked like it was some old shack but judging from the earlier tones of the people, he knew something must have been going on in there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With a small hum and the crack of knuckles, Bro took a sharp inhale of air, filling his lungs as he held it. Stilling his breathing and intake of air, the male hid his presence as best as he could, using the shadows to his advantages as he started to slink closer to the old building.  </span>
  <span>Footsteps as light as air itself, he made his way across the grass, the building getting closer and closer until he finally reached it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When reaching the building, he crouched down on the ground, setting a few of the stones on the ground near him before he covered his mouth and let out the breath he had been holding, getting air back into his lungs, Bro waited in silence. His blood ran cold through his veins, the beat of his heart picking up as  he waited to see if he fucked it up and gave away his position from just </span>
  <em>
    <span>one </span>
  </em>
  <span>exhale.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After waiting for a minute, the male slowly got out of his crouched position to gaze in through the window to get a look at his victims.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Bro: Get a look at your victims.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first thing you saw were two people sitting at a table. Except they weren't exactly people, they had these candy corn colored horns on their heads like they were cosplaying some aliens in an anime you haven't watched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The horns were only the first thing that was weird about them, the second thing was their skin. It was...gray, a tone that you knew wasn't on any human and you also knew that it </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn't</span>
  </em>
  <span> fucking face paint. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their eyes were the last thing that pieced the puzzle together..</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You weren't in </span>
  <em>
    <span>purgatory</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You weren't in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>afterlife.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You.. were in something worse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You were on goddamn..</span>
  <em>
    <span>Alien planet</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ducking back down, you stared at the ground, your blood felt colder than before and your heartbeat seemed to have picked up even more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was as if, where ever you went on this fucking planet, you were only learning more things and getting new information- and goddamn it, you can't even take a second to process it because you could be noticed at any second.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And if you were noticed then you'd run the risk of possibly double dying and you weren't gonna take your chance of 0.0001% of resurrecting a second time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hell no.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aliens or not it was survival of the fittest- and besides a couple of aliens should be easy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You've taken down a wolf with a stick and hell- you've split a meteor in half and put up a fight with a winged dog with superpowers. A couple of grey skinned toddlers was nothin'.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Bro: Strife!</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With a smirk setting on your face, you picked up the stones near you and threw one at the window. As expected by the force you threw it at, the stone made a small shattered hole appear in the glass and the stone soared through the air until…..until it collided with the one of the troll's head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When the troll got hit, their head turned quickly to the window with an obvious hole in it before-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well…..</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before you decided to jump through it and let the glass fly everywhere and cut yourself as you charged straight into the battle with two surprised aliens with candy corn colored horns.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Bro: Switch to Reader.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two trolls, despite being surprised, were quick to collect their bearings and almost immediately took out their weapons. Managing to protect most of their skin from the flying sharp pieces of glass, the trolls charged at Bro. </span>
  <span>The one running to him on the left, came at him with a crowbar while the one on the right came at him with a sword.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wait.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A sword- he needed that, sure it wasn't a katana but it was a weapon he knew how to use that wasn't logs or stones and pebbles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Focusing on the troll on the right, he put some distance between him and his two opponents, chucking two rocks at both of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The troll on the left-he was gonna call troll A- took the hit straight to the forehead and paused for a few seconds, a bit dazed and caught off guard by the sudden small minimal impact that was dealt on their forehead. Meanwhile, troll B managed to dodge the shot, but the troll made the foolish mistake of pausing to check up on their comrade.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When both trolls looked back to where Bro was they were surprised to see...that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn't there. </span>
  </em>
  <span>It was as if he vanished without a trace, and for the most part they would've been right, if it wasn't for the fact that he was standing behind them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All too quickly the fight was over, before the trolls could even turn around, Bro had grabbed the side of the troll's heads and smashed them together with all the force he had.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As both of them fell to the floor their weapons clattered on the wooden floor beside them. Troll B, barely conscious, supporting a giant headache and soon to be bruised, had gone to grab their sword before their hand was stepped on by a foot. Troll B let out a yelp of surprise and pain, practically glaring at him as Bro went to pick up the sword before he pressed the tip of the blade to the troll's neck.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That motion had caused Troll B to take a sharp intake of breath and seal their mouth shut from producing anymore growls of seething rage and anger. With one glance at Troll A, Bro knew he managed to successfully knock them out cold. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Reader: Check up on Bro.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After you saw that the alien was knocked out you turned your attention back to alien B who you still held at...sword point? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ugh, no that was lame. Scratch that out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From what you could see as you looked at the alien was that..well other than their appearance that was alarming at first, they seemed kinda weak, and yeah now that you had a closer look they also looked pretty young.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Great</span>
  </em>
  <b>
    <em>.</em>
  </b>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This would make it the...</span>
  <em>
    <span>36th time?</span>
  </em>
  <span> he has in some way </span>
  <em>
    <span>fought and beat up children</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You weren't going to divulge into why that number was so high for what it signified, because goddamn this was your own </span>
  <em>
    <span>mind</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and your mind already knew the </span>
  <em>
    <span>answer</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Feeling the corner of your mouth want to tug into a frown as it twitched, you ignored it and set out on knocking out alien B for a </span>
  <em>
    <span>nice</span>
  </em>
  <span> nap.  </span>
  <span>After both of the aliens were knocked out you decided to do some snooping, checking the various cabinets in the kitchen and under everything.</span>
</p>
<p><span>Though, you found nothing worth of value or food, well..other than the dead bugs that littered every corner of this rustic old piece of shit. Which </span><em><span>no,</span></em><span> by the way you were not gonna eat the dead bugs because sure, you might be a dude who's probably not showered in the last god knows how many years given your circumstances at the moment. But you weren't that vile to start eating </span><em><span>dead</span></em> <em><span>fucking bugs.</span></em></p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Enough of the rambling, check on Karkat.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karkat seemed to have </span>
  <em>
    <span>eventually</span>
  </em>
  <span> woke up, but when he woke up he came back to a place he didn't recognize.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All he heard around him was constant chitters, noises and multiple animalistic sounds that soothed him, his body felt weighed down and it was fairly hard to move. </span>
  <span>Looking down at himself, he was in a tub of green goo yet.. the goo was calming and soothing and it made all the pain in him much more bearable than before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Deciding to stay in the green goo, he let his body go limp and slack as he sat in the tub, his eyes slid shut while he relaxed. It felt nice. Of course this moment of bliss didn’t last because he was soon being gently prodded and poked until he opened his eyes and met the gaze of another troll, this troll was different then him though, unlike his nubby short horns, </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> horns were sharp and curved a bit. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The kind lady smiled at him and it wasn’t until she looked at him with a concerned expression did he realize that her mouth had been moving.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“-Sweetie, are you alright? Can you understand me?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>When the words hit his ears Karkat just stared, his mouth opened a bit out of surprise before he nodded, the lady seemed to have been asking him if he could understand her, and yes he could even if the way she spoke sounded strange. It was nothing like the sounds of the chitters or the animalistic noises that filled the cavern, it felt..normal and familiar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good. Now come on, we need to get you out of the cocoon”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The troll lady said before she reached out and lifted Karkat out of the ‘cocoon’ he was in, whatever that meant, once she picked him up she grabbed a nearby towel and set him down on the ground. Karkat stared up at her in confusion to the fluffy cloth he saw in her hands before the cloth started to rub against his face and body as she started to get the excess goo off of him, Karkat at first exclaimed in shock and surprise almost going as far as fighting against her until she explained.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Ah!- Calm down little one, i'm only cleaning you up, and then we’ll get you into some clothes”</span>
  <span></span>
    <br/>
  
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>The jadeblood said with a warm smile as she got the rest of it off of Karkat and pulled the towel away from him, walking away for a second she went to go put the towel away before she came back and grabbed Karkat’s fairly smaller gray hand. She led Karkat down a hall, occasionally while walking they’d run into another jadeblood here and there, they always seemed to be engaging in a conversation but Karkat every time tuned it out to focus on his surroundings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The noises he had heard earlier were getting louder and each sound sent something through his small body, that something was the feeling of safety and closure, like everything would be alright if he stayed. He decided that he liked the noises. He liked the noises a lot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Reader: Skip ahead a small bit but not too far.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Skipping ahead a bit the reader comes back to now see Karkat getting dressed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The small troll boy wore a basic black shirt and a pair of pants that were a few shades lighter than the shirt, at the moment Karkat was looking and touching his clothes with a small smile, he felt better now that he had something to keep him warm. Turning to look up at the lady, she smiled at him before she beckoned for him to follow her as she walked out the door of the room they were in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Karkat followed her out the door, staying close by her side until they walked to a clearing in the cavern. What he saw in the area were multiple different fully white animals, some on land, some in giant ponds of water and some </span>
  <em>
    <span>flying</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the air.. But what surprised him the most was the big grub that laid in the middle of it all, drones walked to and from the mother grub, carrying buckets but Karkat couldn't identify what was inside of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span class="u">
    <b>==&gt;Karkat: Point and ask the lady what's in the buckets.</b>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Going to look away from the giant bug that kept releasing a multitude of eggs, you went to point at the drones and the buckets as you turned to face the lady but.. But she </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn't</span>
  </em>
  <span> there. Fully turning around to look behind you, you checked behind you and saw that she wasn't there. After that you looked around completely just to see, to try and catch a glimpse of her, but..she wasn't there. The kind sweet lady you had met was gone and you were now all alone in a cavern, surrounded by those drones and the white creatures that made noise every so often. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Of course that moment of sadness and the feeling of being alone didn’t last for very long as you were suddenly picked up off of the ground from the back of your shirt and lifted into the air, immediately you panicked, already thinking it was a drone about to dispose of you but when you kicked wildly in the air, your arms and legs flailing and moving about. What stopped you was the sudden face of one of the white animals.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creature, while you kicked and squirmed, had at some point turned you around to face them and it gazed at you with a look of curiosity, its pincers snapped out of excitement and eventually it put you back down on the ground. This moment caused you to walk closer to it until  you stood in front of it, the creature ended up bending down to get on your level, its pincers kept away from you to not damage you as they snapped. You kept eye contact with it as you slowly reached out your hand and placed it above it’s jaw that was shut, the creature slowly closed its eyes as it felt the contact and its pincers stopped snapping as you stood there with your hand on its face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>You...you felt like you just grew closer to this creature and you had a feeling that it felt the same way as you both shared this moment in complete silence.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>